I am so excited to be hosting this linky with lots of help from my Peeps (the ladies from the blogs on the banner above). We talked about how we wanted to have a fun spring giveaway, and how many of us were reaching personal milestones on Teachers Pay Teachers and celebrating spring birthdays. We reminisced about our classes this year, and the spring resources we love to use. Then the idea for this linky was created!

Well, I am celebrating a birthday on Tuesday! I won't tell you how old I will be, only that I don't feel that old! My husband plans to take me out to dinner to my favorite restaurant, and I will vow to not order the same thing, but I will! Their chicken piccata is my absolute favorite! They make the most delicious cheddar mashed potatoes and perfectly roasted veggies- whatever is fresh and in season-YUM! They make the best homemade cobblers with vanilla bean ice cream, but I never have room and end up taking half of this home for lunch the next day!

Has this school year completely flown by for you? I seem to feel that it does every year, but this year it seems to be especially true. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have had the best year of my teaching career with my 2/3 combo at my new school. Last year at this time I wasn't sure where I'd be, but I am so glad that things worked out the way they did! Don't be afraid to take the plunge and try something new, no matter how scared you might be. It could be just what you need to keep you going and growing as a teacher.

I'm also thankful for all of the amazing bloggers and teachers I have become friends with on Instagram and in the blogging world. You have become my friends and colleagues, my constant go-to's for questions, inspiration and ideas. I have an excitement for teaching that is as strong (or maybe stronger!) as when I stepped foot inside my first classroom almost two decades ago! Thank you for sharing your love of teaching with me! :) I love our community!

I LOVE to teach with seasonally-themed products! My kiddos have been practicing problem solving with this fun growing bundle from PAWSitively Teaching. Since we have gotten our devices, my students haven't gravitated to my task cards during their independent practice time like they used to. I found a solution to that- QR code task cards! The kiddos grab a set of these and off they go with their devices in hand!

What I love about these cards is they are challenging even for my third graders. I can pair students up, have them work independently, or in groups. Included are five sets of cards, and she will be adding more as time goes on. They are a steal at their current price! Click on the picture below to see the set!

Both my second and third graders still need a ton of practice with telling time, so I'm excited to be prepped for next week! They are going to be so excited with the spring baskets! I love the versatility of these cards- they can be posted around the room for a fun scoot game or placed inside a cute basket or bag so students can grab them and go. This has been great for me with my combo! This set is a little easier- matching up birdies and baby birdies to the hour, half hour, and quarter hour. These would be fun placed inside plastic eggs and hidden around the room!

I think they are going to love the chick set with the chick eggs! This set is a little more challenging. Student have to read the card and use the clocks on the cards to answer the questions.

This set will be GREAT for my kiddos who have a strong grasp of time concepts. They will really have to think!

I've given my "Time for Spring" file a makeover! I loved the clip art in the other set, but I had requests for black line copies, and the clip artist I previously used doesn't sell it for that set, so I gave it a little makeover! Included are task cards and activities for practicing time to the hour, half hour, quarter hour, and minute. There is a complete set in color and black and white! You can click on the picture to see it on TpT.

My kiddos are learning measurement right now. On Friday, we began part one of a hands-on measurement project. The second graders were "hopping" their bunnies and measuring their distances, and the third graders were "slingshotting" their bunnies and measuring how far they flew with a measuring tape. The students recorded their data for each person for each round. On Monday, they will create their own bar graphs using the winners' data for each round. Last year I bought the hopping bunnies from Oriental Trading Company, and I bought the slingshot bunnies at Target in the Dollar Spot. If you aren't able to find these, I have included a sheet of each with the data included in case you want to have your students make a bar graph.

I've included a set of measurement task cards to help the students practice. Before they began their hopping and flying bunnies projects, they completed a round of scoot with these cards posted around the room. You could also use them in a work station- just be sure to put them in a cute basket or bag to add to the fun! :) This set comes in black and white too.

Click below to grab this freebie.

I am so appreciative for all the bloggers who have joined us in this linky! Because of their generosity we have three amazing prizes to offer you! Be sure to follow their stores, Facebook Pages, or Blogs in our Rafflecopter to be entered to win! After you have done that, click on their blogs in the linky to see what they blogged about! (You may just find more fun freebies long the way!)

First of all, here is a picture of Zoe, my first born! We aren't sure exactly how old she was when we got her-somewhere around 4 years old- but we were lucky to have her for over 15 wonderful years. She passed away peacefully a few weeks before Christmas two years ago. We were so spoiled having her as our first family pet! She was so well behaved, loved to walk on a leash, and was so sweet with our kids!

This is Oreo, who thinks she is one of the humans. She lives a life of relaxation and luxury and we are all jealous of her! She loves to be told how beautiful she is!

And here is our Min Pin, Heinrich. Our neighbors originally rescued him from a shelter and named him, and when they could no longer keep him, we adopted him and kept his German name. He has my heart, but the rest of my family finds him to be quite annoying! He's really a sweet dog, and will even say "I love you" for treats!

Meet Olive...

Two years ago, I bought a tiny bunny named Olive, and brought her back and forth each day to school! She was our class bunny, but since moving to my new school, I've left her at home. I think she appreciates not being dragged back and forth to school everyday! She's grumpy most of the time, even growls, (grunts) but she's super cute, so she gets away with it!

I use several pet-themed resources throughout the year. Kids love animals! These are a few of my favorites lessons.

My students have loved this Dogs Close Reading pack by Julie from A First for Everything. You can click on both pictures to see this file more closely, but I love how comprehensive this pack is. Included are text-dependent questions, compare and contrast with Venn diagrams, main idea and details, vocabulary word pages, and much, much more! The kids love learning about the different various breeds of dogs Julie has included! Click on the pictures below to see the file more closely.

Every year we read Dogzilla and Kat Kong in third grade. My students love both stories! I made a few products featuring cats and dogs to go along with this unit.

The students were practicing singular and plural possessive nouns, so I decided to make this file with a fun dog theme.

I had my students organize the dog bones and cards into singular and plural possessive piles before writing them on their recording sheets. I may have been spotted doing the happy dance inside Target when I found these dog dishes that match the colors in this file perfectly! The kids just about flipped when they saw this. They love the novelty!

We use this fun Cats vs. Dogs book by National Geographic Kids to discuss compare and contrast and nonfiction text features. This book is perfect for teaching both concepts!

First, I taught the students about nonfiction text features and how they help us to better understand nonfiction text, which can often be more difficult for students to understand than fiction. Then we used my FREEBIE Nonfiction Text Features Investigation sheet. I told the students they were going to go on a "scavenger hunt" to find as many text features from Cats vs. Dogs as they could. You can have your students copy page numbers and/or draw diagrams for each text feature they find. Click on the picture below to grab your freebie.

After reading the story and completing the sheet above, we are ready to complete the next task. There are a few different ways we do this- one way is to post the strips around the room. Each strip has a statement about cats, dogs, or both. Students copy the sentence on the strip under the correct place on their Venn diagram. I have also done this with small groups and whole class using my Venn diagram pocket chart. Hula hoops work great for this as well! This file has been revamped with vocabulary cards and a few writing printables. The entire file now comes in black line as well! (I'm working on adding black lines to my other Cats and Dogs files!)

We were learning about verbs the same time we were working on compare/contrast and Dogzilla and Kat Kong, so I created a few sets of task cards to go along with the theme.